Fri, May 16 2008
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Published May 03, 2008 01:50 am - Pole vault, distances key events for Southern men in conference By Jim Fryar
jfryar@joplinglobe.com The strengths of the Missouri Southern men’s track and field team are evident. The Lions should score heavily in the pole vault and the distance races in the MIAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which begin today at Northwest Missouri State in Maryville. If the Lions can maintain their dominance of the vault and the distances, it’s a matter of how well they do in their “other” events that will determine how high they finish in the team race. “We’ve got our eight points we’ve projected so far,” men’s coach Tom Rutledge said of junior Phillip Horn’s second-place finish in the MIAA decathlon earlier this week in Hays, Kan. “If we can get the other 130 points (projected by the coach),” we’ll be OK. ... That’s if we do everything we are capable of doing. It’s conference time and we always rise to the occasion.” Central Missouri is the defending MIAA champion after scoring 159 points in the 2007 league meet. Southern was second (132.5 points), followed by Pittsburg State (122.5) and Fort Hays State (121.5). The key event for the Lions, if the team score remains close late in the meet, will be the 5,000 meters. Teams are allowed five wild-card entries in the conference meet and Rutledge has reserved two of those for the 5K. “We’ll just have to see where we’re at,” Rutledge said. Key earlier events are the pole vault and high jump, which have both been disappointments this spring. The Lions finished 1-2-3-5 in the vault a year ago, scoring 28 points. Rutledge would like a similar performance from seniors Russell Ellis and Jacob Williams, junior Seager Wilson and sophomore Corey Shumate. Both Ellis and Williams are ranked among the national leaders in the event. Sophomore high jumpers Corey Reynolds and Chris Brown, both former national qualifiers, are ranked just fifth and sixth in the conference. Senior T.J. Britton, who has provided the Lions with a boost since joining the team after basketball season, has the top qualifying time at 800 meters. Britton will attempt a rare combination of events, also running the 400 and long jumping. “He knows he’s on the bubble (for national qualification) in the 800, but he came to me and said he wants to do this,” Rutledge said. 
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